Sarasota Real Estate Update: June 2016

Median Prices Continue to Rise

Share this post:

SARASOTA, Fla. (July 21, 2016) – Median sale prices are on the rise for condos and single family homes in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. Single family median sales prices are up 7.8 percent in Sarasota County to $248,000, while Manatee County experienced a 12.4 percent jump to $285,000. The Sarasota County condo median sale price rose 4.3 percent to $219,000, and Manatee County also saw an increase of 11.6 percent in condo sales price over last year, to $173,000.

“The rise in median prices reflects the continued popularity of the area and the impact of our current low inventory levels,” said 2016 RASM President, Linda Formella.

Sales have also been on the rise this year, with more single family sales reported in both Sarasota and Manatee County in June than any other month this year. Sarasota County single family homes jumped to 792, a 5.2 percent increase from May 2016. Manatee County single family homes jumped 1.2 percent from May 2016 to 610. While 2016 doesn’t compare to the record breaking numbers in 2015, this rising trend in 2016 is worth noting.

Compared to last year, however, closed sales for single family homes in Manatee County and Sarasota County are down slightly from June of 2015. Manatee County saw a 2.4 percent decrease and Sarasota a 4.7 percent decrease in single family homes. On the flipside, condos in Sarasota saw a 0.9 percent increase from June of last year. However, condos in Manatee County decreased by 4.4 percent from June of 2015.

New pending sales for both condos and single family homes in Sarasota and Manatee County are 25 percent lower than last June. This year, we are noticing a more typical trend, with pending sales slowing after season’s end, compared to last year’s tapering off in September.

Distressed properties, foreclosures and short sales, continue to decline. In June, 6.3 percent of closed sales were distressed, compared to the 13.4 percent in June of 2015. Distressed sales for single family homes represented 7.1 percent and condos at 4.4 percent in the two-county area.

June data also reveals that inventory numbers continue to rise for the two-county area, likely from more sellers taking advantage of rising prices. For single family homes in Sarasota County, inventory is up 20.4 percent from June 2015, and up 17.2 percent in Manatee County. Condo inventory is also on the rise in Sarasota County, up 35.9 percent, while Manatee County experienced a 16.8 percent increase from last year.

“The market seems to be balancing out compared to the high number of sales we saw last year. We see an improvement in distressed properties, inventory on the rise, as well as an increase in median sales prices,” says Formella.

The months’ supply of inventory showed a small improvement, ranging from 4.2 to 5.1 months of inventory this year, compared to a range of 3.5 to 4.1 months at this time last year, due to a slight increase in inventory. A months’ supply of inventory reflects the time it would take to sell all the active listings on the market at the current month’s rate of sales. Six months is considered the benchmark for a balanced market; anything higher is considered a buyers’ market and anything lower is a sellers’ market.